The Wentzville School District has decided to make some major changes to the schedule for the next academic school year, to provide students with a daily mental brain break, create more opportunities to get help from teachers, meet with their school clubs, also a class period once a week to assist with organizing, finalizing work, and maintaining plans for graduation.

The schedule will be a modified block format with a feature called “Power Lunch” and academic networking time. Academic Intervention will be “9th hour” on Thursdays.

Mondays, Tuesdays and Fridays are regular 48-minute classes. Wednesdays and Thursdays are blocked classes.

Below will be how the schedule will look here at Liberty.

“The idea of changing the schedule was brought up by a group of teachers, administrators, content leaders, and counselors who visited schools and conducted research of different school models,” said assistant principal Dr. Kiely.

The district decided to give students a “power lunch” and a modified block schedule. “Power lunch” will be a time for students to eat, socialize, go to the gym, go to teachers for help, and an opportunity for students to meet with their clubs during school, as opposed to after school. During this “power lunch,” students are not allowed to leave campus. Seniors that may have a late start or early release will be at school from 7:20 a.m. – 2:20 p.m. on Thursdays due to block schedules.  

After asking students what they think about the new schedule, we gathered that it will be a big change and definitely something worth getting used to.

Student Thoughts

“It’s gonna be a little weird because we are juniors and our last year will be completely different.” Faith Gosnell (11) 

“I don’t like that we’re changing it.” Olivia Maciejczak (11) 

“I think it’s gonna be weird but I am excited to have an hour of gym.” Drew Crittenden (9) 

“I would rather have all the classes in one day instead of separated and I don’t like the long AI.” Mckenna Hurwitz (9) 

From a teacher’s perspective, this will definitely be a huge change. Math teacher Mrs. Jacks is a little concerned about the  unstructured time.

“I think we will have a little less class time than we currently have; And if we have kind of a weird week where we have one snow day and if it is on one of those block days, what will that look like?” Jacks said.    

Parking Changes

There has been talk that students will not have designated parking next year, lucky for everyone that is not true. Seniors will get early access to parking and sophomores and juniors will get access shortly after, as always. Contrary to popular belief, it doesn’t matter when you pay for parking. They just put everyone’s names in a random generator. If you don’t pay within the time they give you, you will be more likely to have a spot near the football field. 

With the new changes for the schedule, this will be a good opportunity for students to learn how to manage their time. It will take some getting used to for both students and teachers, but as a team we can make it work.